Todd Bolender, Janet Reed, and the Making of American Ballet

Todd Bolender, Janet Reed, and the Making of American Ballet PDF Author: Martha Ullman West
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813057811
Category : Ballet
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Get Book

Book Description
"This book explores the lives and careers of Todd Bolender and Janet Reed, two unsung trailblazers who were pivotal to the development of ballet in America over the course of the twentieth century"--

Todd Bolender, Janet Reed, and the Making of American Ballet

Todd Bolender, Janet Reed, and the Making of American Ballet PDF Author: Martha Ullman West
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813057811
Category : Ballet
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Get Book

Book Description
"This book explores the lives and careers of Todd Bolender and Janet Reed, two unsung trailblazers who were pivotal to the development of ballet in America over the course of the twentieth century"--

Todd Bolender, Janet Reed, and the Making of American Ballet

Todd Bolender, Janet Reed, and the Making of American Ballet PDF Author: Martha Ullman West
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813066776
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Get Book

Book Description
This book explores the lives and careers of Todd Bolender and Janet Reed, two unsung trailblazers who were pivotal to the development of ballet in America over the course of the twentieth century.

Todd Bolender, Janet Reed, and the Making of American Ballet

Todd Bolender, Janet Reed, and the Making of American Ballet PDF Author: Martha Ullman West
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813065844
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Get Book

Book Description
Martha Ullman West illustrates how American ballet developed over the course of the twentieth century from an aesthetic originating in the courts of Europe into a stylistically diverse expression of a democratic culture. West places at center stage two artists who were instrumental to this story: Todd Bolender and Janet Reed. Lifelong friends, Bolender (1914–2006) and Reed (1916–2000) were part of a generation of dancers who navigated the Great Depression, World War II, and the vibrant cultural scene of postwar New York City. They danced in the works of choreographers Lew and Willam Christensen, Eugene Loring, Agnes de Mille, Catherine Littlefield, Ruthanna Boris, and others who West argues were just as responsible for the direction of American ballet as the legendary George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. The stories of Bolender, Reed, and their contemporaries also demonstrate that the flowering of American ballet was not simply a New York phenomenon. West includes little-known details about how Bolender and Reed laid the foundations for Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet in the 1970s and how Bolender transformed the Kansas City Ballet into a highly respected professional company soon after. Passionate in their desire to dance and create dances, Bolender and Reed committed their lives to passing along their hard-won knowledge, training, and work. This book celebrates two unsung trailblazers who were pivotal to the establishment of ballet in America from one coast to the other.

Balanchine's Apprentice

Balanchine's Apprentice PDF Author: John Clifford
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813072018
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Get Book

Book Description
A talented young dancer and his brilliant teacher In this long-awaited memoir, dancer and choreographer John Clifford offers a highly personal look inside the day-to-day operations of the New York City Ballet and its creative mastermind, George Balanchine. Balanchine’s Apprentice is the story of Clifford—an exceptionally talented artist—and the guiding inspiration for his life’s work in dance. Growing up in Hollywood with parents in show business, Clifford acted in television productions such as The Danny Kaye Show, The Dinah Shore Show, and Death Valley Days. He recalls the beginning of his obsession with ballet: At age 11 he was cast as the Prince in a touring production of The Nutcracker. The director was none other than the legendary Balanchine, who would eventually invite Clifford to New York City and shape his career as both a mentor and artistic example. During his dazzling tenure with the New York City Ballet, Clifford danced the lead in 47 works, several created for him by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and others. He partnered famous ballerinas including Gelsey Kirkland and Allegra Kent. He choreographed eight ballets for the company, his first at age 20. He performed in Russia, Germany, France, and Canada. Afterward, he returned to the West Coast to found the Los Angeles Ballet, where he continued to innovate based on the Balanchine technique. In this book, Clifford provides firsthand insight into Balanchine’s relationships with his dancers, including Suzanne Farrell. Examining his own attachment to his charismatic teacher, Clifford explores questions of creative influence and integrity. His memoir is a portrait of a young dancer who learned and worked at lightning speed, who pursued the calls of art and genius on both coasts of America and around the world.

Why Dance Matters

Why Dance Matters PDF Author: Mindy Aloff
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300204523
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 277

Get Book

Book Description
A passionate and moving tribute to the captivating power of dance, not just as an art form but as a language that transcends barriers Mindy Aloff, a journalist, an essayist, and a dance critic, analyzes dance as the ultimate expression of human energy and feeling. From her personal anecdotes, her engaging collection of stories about dance from around the world, or her description of the captivating photograph by Helen Levitt of two children dancing, which she sees as one embodiment of the mystery and joy that dancing can evoke, Aloff's exploration of the aesthetic, social, and spiritual impacts of dance will prove spellbinding. Aloff takes us on a journey through various forms of dance--rituals, religious observances, storytelling, musical interpretations--to show why dance matters to human beings. Interlaced with personal experiences, this book builds on analysis to reveal the intimate relationship we have with dance--personal, spiritual, soul-searching, medicinal, and entertaining. The ideas speak to both specialist and general readers.

By with to & from

By with to & from PDF Author: Lincoln Kirstein
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813029542
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 423

Get Book

Book Description
Lincoln Kirstein'swriting is a notable example of a wide historical awareness that was fired by passion and guided by taste. He established his interests in art and literature as an undergraduate at Harvard during the late 1920s.There he started the famous quarterly Hound & Horn, a magazine that published the work of such writers as James Joyce and Gertrude Stein, and also cofounded the Harvard Society for Contemporary Art, which exhibited the work of cutting-edge artists. Best known for his pioneering efforts to cultivate ballet in the United States, he actively pursued a professional partnership with legendary choreographer George Balanchine, with whom he founded both the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet. This collection, in paperback for the first time, showcases Kirstein's knowledge of dance, painting, photography, theatre, politics, and literature and combines many of his best-known and most authoritative statements with less familiar but equally brilliant polemics and appreciations. Along with autobiographical essays and poetry, his commentary covers such diverse personalities as composer Igor Stravinsky, photographer Walker Evans, author Ernest Hemingway, actress Marilyn Monroe, and Robert Gould Shaw, leader of the courageous black Civil War regiment. The book also contains photographs from Kirstein's private collection--portraits of himself and other famous artists of the time, such as Diaghilev, Cocteau, and Eisenstein, among others.

Once A Dancer

Once A Dancer PDF Author: Allegra Kent
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312187507
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Get Book

Book Description
Balanchine ballerina Allegra Kent tells her singular story with the same originality, freshness, and grace she has brought to the stage. The book should be required reading for dancers everywhere for years to come. of photos.

Bravura!

Bravura! PDF Author: Alex C. Ewing
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813042038
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 512

Get Book

Book Description
To many people, Lucia Chase (1897-1986) was the American Ballet Theatre, and her reign as the queen of American ballet lasted for more than four decades. It was Chase who brought Nureyev, Bujones, Kirkland, and eventually Baryshnikov to ABT. Under her leadership, the company worked with such legends as Agnes de Mille, Anthony Tudor, Jerome Robbins, and Twyla Tharp. Her drive, ambition, tenacity, and money kept the doors open even during the lean years. A dancer when the company made its debut in 1940, she was artistic director for an unprecedented thirty-five years, from 1945 to 1980. Over the course of her career, she received numerous honors and awards, including the U.S. Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Combining unique personal insights as Chase's son along with experience garnered from his own professional dance and administrative career, Alex Ewing offers the definitive story of one of the true pioneers in the world of American ballet.

Broadway, Balanchine, and Beyond

Broadway, Balanchine, and Beyond PDF Author: Bettijane Sills
Publisher: University Press of Florida
ISBN: 0813063876
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Get Book

Book Description
In this memoir of a roller-coaster career on the New York stage, former actor and dancer Bettijane Sills offers a highly personal look at the art and practice of George Balanchine, one of ballet’s greatest choreographers, and the inner workings of his world-renowned company during its golden years. Sills recounts her years as a child actor in television and on Broadway, a career choice largely driven by her mother, and describes her transition into pursuing her true passion: dance. She was a student in Balanchine’s School of American Ballet throughout her childhood and teen years, until her dream was achieved. She was invited to join New York City Ballet in 1961 as a member of the corps de ballet and worked her way up to the level of soloist. Winningly honest and intimate, Sills lets readers peek behind the curtains to see a world that most people have never experienced firsthand. She tells stories of taking classes with Balanchine, dancing in the original casts of some of his most iconic productions, working with a number of the company’s most famous dancers, and participating in the company’s first Soviet Union tour during the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis. She walks us through her years in New York City Ballet first as a member of the corps de ballet, then a soloist dancing some principal roles, finally as one of the “older” dancers teaching her roles to newcomers while being encouraged to retire. She reveals the unglamorous parts of tour life, jealousy among company members, and Balanchine’s complex relationships with women. She talks about Balanchine’s insistence on thinness in his dancers and her own struggles with dieting. Her fluctuations in weight influenced her roles and Balanchine’s support for her—a cycle that contributed to the end of her dancing career. Now a professor of dance who has educated hundreds of students on Balanchine’s style and legacy, Sills reflects on the highs and lows of a career indelibly influenced by fear of failure and fear of success—by the bright lights of theater and the man who shaped American ballet.

Suki Schorer on Balanchine Technique

Suki Schorer on Balanchine Technique PDF Author: Suki Schorer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813029771
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 426

Get Book

Book Description
When still a young dancer in the New York City Ballet, Suki Schorer was chosen by George Balanchine to lecture, demonstrate, and teach--he recognized in her that rare dancer who not only performs superbly but can also successfully pass along what she knows to others. In Suki Schorer on Balanchine Technique, she commits to paper the fruit of her twenty-four-year collaboration with Balanchine in a close examination of his technique for teachers, scholars, and advanced students of the ballet. Schorer discusses the crucial work at the barre as well as center work, port de bras, pointework, jumps, partnering, and more. Her recollections of her own tutelage under Balanchine and her brilliant use of scores of his remarks about dancing and dancers lend both authority and intimacy to this extraordinary analysis of Balanchine's legacy to the future of dance. Abundantly illustrated throughout with instructional photographs featuring members of the New York City Ballet, this book will serve as an indispensable testament to Balanchine's ideas on technique and performance.